Winona native killed in Iraq
Herón Márquez Estrada, Star Tribune
Norma Benson was just starting dinner in her Winona, Minn., home last week when the phone rang."I was sure it was a telemarketer," said Benson, 74. "We're on the do-not-call list, but at least one of them gets through every night. Then the man said he was a sergeant from the Army and I knew right away that it was something bad."The caller said that Sgt. First Class Michael A. Benson, her son, had been seriously wounded in Iraq by a suicide bomber, and that he was being flown to Germany for treatment of severe head injuries.Benson, 40, an Army training specialist based at Fort Drum, N.Y., never regained consciousness. He died Wednesday morning at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md, after doctors took him off life-support systems.We knew it was coming," Norma Benson said Thursday from her home in Winona, a city in southeast Minnesota. "I talked to the doctor Tuesday and she said there was no hope, that it was only machines keeping him alive."Mike Benson is the 25th Minnesotan to die as a result of injuries suffered in the Mideast during the war in Iraq. He was helping to train Iraqi security forces and had been in the country since the end of March.Benson's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, along with Meritorious Service and Army Achievement medals, Fort Drum officials said Thursday.The Army said his unit plans a memorial service in Iraq on Sunday. Robyn Benson, who was married to Benson for five years in the 1990s, said he loved the Army and joined because his father was in the military."He wanted to be like his dad," said Robyn Benson, who grew up in St. Paul and now lives in North Carolina.Mike Benson grew up in Winona and graduated from Winona High School in 1983. He joined the Army in December 1985 and made a career out of it."He's lived all over the world," said a brother, David Benson, of Winona.Norma Benson said her son often would often tell stories about traveling all over the world."He used to rattle off a long list of names of places and then we would realize those were all places where bad things were happening," she said.Among those places was Iraq, where Benson was stationed during the Persian Gulf War. He helped liberate Kuwait, and his family said his duties included clearing bombs from mine fields of northern Iraq.Benson lost touch with his friends and high school classmates in Winona after joining the Army. He was so busy traveling the world that his family hasn't even met his wife, Elizabeth, of Colchester, Vt., whom he married in the late 1990s.In the spring of 2003, Benson was looking forward to returning to his hometown to introduce his wife to his family and attend his 20th-anniversary high school class reunion."But that was about the time that the [Iraq] war broke out and all leaves were canceled," Norma Benson said Thursday.Robyn Benson said her former husband was "super smart" and routinely aced any exam the military required him to take. He also liked to cook and do creative writing. He probably liked serving in Iraq, she said."There wasn't anything he couldn't do," she said. "He loved being in the Army."That much was evident from some of the letters he wrote home."I hope you can understand how my job goes and the kind of dedication I put into," he wrote several years ago. "It means sacrificing all -- each and every one of my personal goals -- to be a team player in this combat force. My job comes before everything else in my life -- even my own life."Staff writer Jill Burcum and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Herón Márquez Estrada, Star Tribune
Norma Benson was just starting dinner in her Winona, Minn., home last week when the phone rang."I was sure it was a telemarketer," said Benson, 74. "We're on the do-not-call list, but at least one of them gets through every night. Then the man said he was a sergeant from the Army and I knew right away that it was something bad."The caller said that Sgt. First Class Michael A. Benson, her son, had been seriously wounded in Iraq by a suicide bomber, and that he was being flown to Germany for treatment of severe head injuries.Benson, 40, an Army training specialist based at Fort Drum, N.Y., never regained consciousness. He died Wednesday morning at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md, after doctors took him off life-support systems.We knew it was coming," Norma Benson said Thursday from her home in Winona, a city in southeast Minnesota. "I talked to the doctor Tuesday and she said there was no hope, that it was only machines keeping him alive."Mike Benson is the 25th Minnesotan to die as a result of injuries suffered in the Mideast during the war in Iraq. He was helping to train Iraqi security forces and had been in the country since the end of March.Benson's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, along with Meritorious Service and Army Achievement medals, Fort Drum officials said Thursday.The Army said his unit plans a memorial service in Iraq on Sunday. Robyn Benson, who was married to Benson for five years in the 1990s, said he loved the Army and joined because his father was in the military."He wanted to be like his dad," said Robyn Benson, who grew up in St. Paul and now lives in North Carolina.Mike Benson grew up in Winona and graduated from Winona High School in 1983. He joined the Army in December 1985 and made a career out of it."He's lived all over the world," said a brother, David Benson, of Winona.Norma Benson said her son often would often tell stories about traveling all over the world."He used to rattle off a long list of names of places and then we would realize those were all places where bad things were happening," she said.Among those places was Iraq, where Benson was stationed during the Persian Gulf War. He helped liberate Kuwait, and his family said his duties included clearing bombs from mine fields of northern Iraq.Benson lost touch with his friends and high school classmates in Winona after joining the Army. He was so busy traveling the world that his family hasn't even met his wife, Elizabeth, of Colchester, Vt., whom he married in the late 1990s.In the spring of 2003, Benson was looking forward to returning to his hometown to introduce his wife to his family and attend his 20th-anniversary high school class reunion."But that was about the time that the [Iraq] war broke out and all leaves were canceled," Norma Benson said Thursday.Robyn Benson said her former husband was "super smart" and routinely aced any exam the military required him to take. He also liked to cook and do creative writing. He probably liked serving in Iraq, she said."There wasn't anything he couldn't do," she said. "He loved being in the Army."That much was evident from some of the letters he wrote home."I hope you can understand how my job goes and the kind of dedication I put into," he wrote several years ago. "It means sacrificing all -- each and every one of my personal goals -- to be a team player in this combat force. My job comes before everything else in my life -- even my own life."Staff writer Jill Burcum and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Winona native killed in Iraq
Herón Márquez Estrada, Star Tribune
Norma Benson was just starting dinner in her Winona, Minn., home last week when the phone rang."I was sure it was a telemarketer," said Benson, 74. "We're on the do-not-call list, but at least one of them gets through every night. Then the man said he was a sergeant from the Army and I knew right away that it was something bad."The caller said that Sgt. First Class Michael A. Benson, her son, had been seriously wounded in Iraq by a suicide bomber, and that he was being flown to Germany for treatment of severe head injuries.Benson, 40, an Army training specialist based at Fort Drum, N.Y., never regained consciousness. He died Wednesday morning at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md, after doctors took him off life-support systems.We knew it was coming," Norma Benson said Thursday from her home in Winona, a city in southeast Minnesota. "I talked to the doctor Tuesday and she said there was no hope, that it was only machines keeping him alive."Mike Benson is the 25th Minnesotan to die as a result of injuries suffered in the Mideast during the war in Iraq. He was helping to train Iraqi security forces and had been in the country since the end of March.Benson's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, along with Meritorious Service and Army Achievement medals, Fort Drum officials said Thursday.The Army said his unit plans a memorial service in Iraq on Sunday. Robyn Benson, who was married to Benson for five years in the 1990s, said he loved the Army and joined because his father was in the military."He wanted to be like his dad," said Robyn Benson, who grew up in St. Paul and now lives in North Carolina.Mike Benson grew up in Winona and graduated from Winona High School in 1983. He joined the Army in December 1985 and made a career out of it."He's lived all over the world," said a brother, David Benson, of Winona.Norma Benson said her son often would often tell stories about traveling all over the world."He used to rattle off a long list of names of places and then we would realize those were all places where bad things were happening," she said.Among those places was Iraq, where Benson was stationed during the Persian Gulf War. He helped liberate Kuwait, and his family said his duties included clearing bombs from mine fields of northern Iraq.Benson lost touch with his friends and high school classmates in Winona after joining the Army. He was so busy traveling the world that his family hasn't even met his wife, Elizabeth, of Colchester, Vt., whom he married in the late 1990s.In the spring of 2003, Benson was looking forward to returning to his hometown to introduce his wife to his family and attend his 20th-anniversary high school class reunion."But that was about the time that the [Iraq] war broke out and all leaves were canceled," Norma Benson said Thursday.Robyn Benson said her former husband was "super smart" and routinely aced any exam the military required him to take. He also liked to cook and do creative writing. He probably liked serving in Iraq, she said."There wasn't anything he couldn't do," she said. "He loved being in the Army."That much was evident from some of the letters he wrote home."I hope you can understand how my job goes and the kind of dedication I put into," he wrote several years ago. "It means sacrificing all -- each and every one of my personal goals -- to be a team player in this combat force. My job comes before everything else in my life -- even my own life."Staff writer Jill Burcum and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Herón Márquez Estrada, Star Tribune
Norma Benson was just starting dinner in her Winona, Minn., home last week when the phone rang."I was sure it was a telemarketer," said Benson, 74. "We're on the do-not-call list, but at least one of them gets through every night. Then the man said he was a sergeant from the Army and I knew right away that it was something bad."The caller said that Sgt. First Class Michael A. Benson, her son, had been seriously wounded in Iraq by a suicide bomber, and that he was being flown to Germany for treatment of severe head injuries.Benson, 40, an Army training specialist based at Fort Drum, N.Y., never regained consciousness. He died Wednesday morning at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md, after doctors took him off life-support systems.We knew it was coming," Norma Benson said Thursday from her home in Winona, a city in southeast Minnesota. "I talked to the doctor Tuesday and she said there was no hope, that it was only machines keeping him alive."Mike Benson is the 25th Minnesotan to die as a result of injuries suffered in the Mideast during the war in Iraq. He was helping to train Iraqi security forces and had been in the country since the end of March.Benson's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, along with Meritorious Service and Army Achievement medals, Fort Drum officials said Thursday.The Army said his unit plans a memorial service in Iraq on Sunday. Robyn Benson, who was married to Benson for five years in the 1990s, said he loved the Army and joined because his father was in the military."He wanted to be like his dad," said Robyn Benson, who grew up in St. Paul and now lives in North Carolina.Mike Benson grew up in Winona and graduated from Winona High School in 1983. He joined the Army in December 1985 and made a career out of it."He's lived all over the world," said a brother, David Benson, of Winona.Norma Benson said her son often would often tell stories about traveling all over the world."He used to rattle off a long list of names of places and then we would realize those were all places where bad things were happening," she said.Among those places was Iraq, where Benson was stationed during the Persian Gulf War. He helped liberate Kuwait, and his family said his duties included clearing bombs from mine fields of northern Iraq.Benson lost touch with his friends and high school classmates in Winona after joining the Army. He was so busy traveling the world that his family hasn't even met his wife, Elizabeth, of Colchester, Vt., whom he married in the late 1990s.In the spring of 2003, Benson was looking forward to returning to his hometown to introduce his wife to his family and attend his 20th-anniversary high school class reunion."But that was about the time that the [Iraq] war broke out and all leaves were canceled," Norma Benson said Thursday.Robyn Benson said her former husband was "super smart" and routinely aced any exam the military required him to take. He also liked to cook and do creative writing. He probably liked serving in Iraq, she said."There wasn't anything he couldn't do," she said. "He loved being in the Army."That much was evident from some of the letters he wrote home."I hope you can understand how my job goes and the kind of dedication I put into," he wrote several years ago. "It means sacrificing all -- each and every one of my personal goals -- to be a team player in this combat force. My job comes before everything else in my life -- even my own life."Staff writer Jill Burcum and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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